Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.

Bellevue, Kent, Auburn Wrong on Safe Injection Sites

America is smack dab in the middle of a deadly opioid overdose epidemic that claimed more lives last year than America lost in the entire Vietnam conflict. A synthetic version of heroin, Fentanyl, is up to 50 to 100 times stronger than morphine, and Americans are dying in communities all over our nation because of it. These substances are taking the lives of a cross section of the populace including working mainstream Americans who have become introduced to opiates by a broken healthcare system that is apparently as motivated by profits as it is geared toward healing.

I am sure that the representatives from the cities of Bellevue, Kent, and Auburn, who have recently voted to ban the proven harm reduction model of supervised injection sites from their towns, are good people who believe they are making decisions in the best interest of their citizenry. But their decision to ban supervised Injection sites will ultimately cost lives.

While it might be counter-intuitive to the casual observer, health professionals that work with addiction know that supervised injection sites save lives. They also help combat the scourge of uncapped, used syringes littering streets, alleys and public parks. Furthermore, these supervised locations also lead to treatment options for some of the users frequenting them.

What these supervised sites do not do, and this is proven by data, is result in more IV drug users moving to a community that houses them. Opponents of supervised injection sites, like the people behind the ill devised proposed initiative to further ban these sites, I-27, will argue that these locations legitimize and endorse drug use. Well, that is simply wrong. What supervised injection sites actually do is endorse harm reduction, a proven lifesaving model that not only minimizes the harm and death count associated with opioid injection (and other forms of drug delivery), but also reduce the impact of these activities on communities and neighborhoods. These sites mean an opportunity for many drug users to avoid injecting in the doorways of closed businesses, public restrooms, and other public places.

People in our communities are dying today. They are already using and the deaths are increasing. It makes little sense to second guess healthcare professionals who are working at the tip of the spear and have first-hand experience with harm reduction. Those same professionals insist that supervised injection sites help manage the harm associated with IV drug use.

Those who have direct experience with addiction will testify that the mere act of having a positive human interaction with somebody who treats you as a human being deserving of intervention can make the difference between life and death decisions. Each one of these opioid users has a story, a past, and are redeemable. They are not “druggies,” they are people with suffering from the disease of addiction. They are our children, our neighbors, our co-workers. Many are savable. But to save them we have to try something different.

We cannot incarcerate our way out of this epidemic. Stronger, stiffer sentences will not stop the deaths from happening. We’ve tried that course for decades. We cannot rely on politicians to solve the problem because they helped create it, along with aggressive marketing campaigns from pharmaceutical companies. We need to respond on the community level where we can make an impact. We should at least give supervised sites a chance as a pilot program before banning the approach all together.

The good, decent, caring people who oppose supervised injection sites are making a simple mistake and the price will be steep for everyone involved. There are already people in their communities using opioids today. Many of them will be gone tomorrow. By giving the harm reduction model a chance some of those lives could be saved. It is a shame that these communities have already decided to prevent that possibility from happening.

Note: This is a seattlepi.com reader blog. It is not written or edited by the P-I. The authors are solely responsible for content. E-mail us at newmedia@seattlepi.com if you consider a post inappropriate.